Credit: volleyballmag.com
It’s induction week at the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The ceremony is Saturday, October 21, 2023. Six inductees will join the previous 161 players, coaches, administrators and leaders from 25 countries who have already been enshrined in the museum at the birthplace of volleyball.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNje0P8ACd8
How far has volleyball come in Thailand? Just look at who did not make the direct entry 12-team main draw for this past August’s prestigious fully-loaded Beach Pro Tour Elite16 Hamburg.
Olympic medalists Laura Ludwig, Xue Chen, Anouk Verge Depre and Joana Mader were relegated to the qualifier. Meanwhile fully half of the main draw constituted teams from beach royalty, Brazil and the USA. But who else made it into that main draw looking like party crashers?
Thailand’s Taravadee Naraphornrapat and partner Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee, that’s who.
Much of this sort of advancement in both the indoor and beach versions of the sport in Asia in general, and Thailand in particular, can be attributed to the impact of Mr Shanrit Wongprasert, the first International Volleyball Hall of Fame inductee to ever come from the Southeast Asian country.
“I was so surprised because I never thought that my volleyball voluntary work would be recognized by the International Volleyball Hall of Fame. It is the greatest honor of my life,” Shanrit said.
“Given the chance to work, I will give it all with determination, discipline and dedication. I just would like to give back to my beloved country and prove that “The more disciplined you become, the easier life gets.” Furthermore, I believe that if we, Thai people, aim to do something, we are capable of making things with the highest quality. For Thai people, determination and dedication are no less than those from other nations.”
Shanrit has done everything in his life at a high level.
Born on December 16, 1943, in Ban Pong District in Ratchaburi, Thailand, the 79-year-old started playing in a nine-man system in middle school as a digger of the third row. In high school, in a more traditional six-player configuration, he was an outside hitter. While on the Thai national team Shanrit was a setter.
Having sufficiently caught the volleyball “bug,” Shanrit stayed in the sport, becoming at first a coach, at the university, club and finally women’s national team levels. But it is as an administrator…
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